Fri Jan. 6 - Window on the Mystery (1 Giant Leap)

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring them also.  They, too, will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  
              - John 10:16


On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned home by another road.
         - Matthew 1:11-12

The shepherds get a lot of air time as being God's unexpected chosen guests at the manger - not powerful kings but the poorest of the poor, called upon to receive the Son of God. But what do we make of those other first guests, mysterious foreigners of other faiths who journeyed afar? Not Mary's 'church family' or religious leaders from Joseph's synagogue, but wisdom seekers, star trackers, faith sojourners?

The fact is, those "Wise Men," don't seem to have become 'Christians' in any recognizable sense either before or after they visited the manger - yet they still came to witness, honor, and give gifts to Jesus where he lay.  They were Zoroastrian foreigners who sensed the in-breaking of God in Jesus and worshiped that divinity, ultimately leaving transformed.  So in a way, this shows that Jesus truly and fully embodied the Divine Mystery which lays at the heart of all religions.  Yet rather than making Christ the center, the period on that Mystery, it also makes Christ the window on the Mystery itself.

As we've explored, that first Christmas was full of surprises and reversals, turning people's expectations upside-down. This Epiphany, we might consider the surprising ways in which Christ's coming continues to upend us, razing the boundaries we had in place, upsetting our rules and expectations.  Over and over, what Christmas really show us is that the God we worship is unlimited by our current understandings of the way the world works - and in the story of the "Wise Men" cannot even be tamed by the boundaries of religions we have tried to erect, transforming both us and others in the process.

I Love the Way you Dream by 1 Giant Leap feat. Asha Bohsle, Michael Stipe, et al.  (lyrics HERE)

Note: Brief nudity in the context of religious ritual toward the end of the video.

As we journey forward from Christmastide into the early days of a new year, may we feel Christ's in-dwelling Spirit making all things new, not just in the world, but in our own vision of the world - of its peoples; of its complicated, messy, problematic, blessing-filled faith traditions; and of God's spiraling, upending, all-encompassing plan for us all.

Thanks for journeying with us- and peace in the coming year!

Its been real, its been fun, its been real fun.

-Lindsey and Anna

Thurs Jan. 5 - Love, Love, Love (The Mountain Goats)

One of the more popular of recent years' holiday films has been Love Actually, with its celebrations and reflections on the bitter and the sweet of earthly love in all its forms: family, romantic, friendship and more.  The general message, neatly packaged, is this: earthly love is messy, beautiful, complicated, painful, risky, self-contradicting- deeply imperfect, but somehow, sometimes, worth it.

Today's song takes the same idea, but to a much darker place.  As this song points out, the melody we're singing might be 'love, love, love,' but some terrible, brutal things are done in the twisted forms of love we foster in our lives, and the echoing of those actions can haunt us.

This could just be some morose anti-Christmas cheer reflection on human fallenness and depravity, but I hear something else: I hear God's pity and God's grace, too.  I hear Jesus coming as an infant, acting and speaking as a man about 'love, love, love' (echoing Dave Matthews 'love is all around' refrain from our Christmas Eve post) and having all of us so woefully, tragically, and almost willfully misunderstand him for two thousand years -- and yet and still offering us a love which is so wildly boundless, so graciously vulnerable, so passionately freedom-seeking that we can barely turn toward and believe it.

I received an emailed image tonight that sums up pretty well where I think we as Christians have twisted and mangled the idea of love, and especially Christ's love, back in on itself in so many ways (HERE).  How can we hear this song as not only as a call to own our own broken witness to Jesus' love, but as an invitation to remember the Source of that love and the ways in which, as the song reminds us, 'now we see this / as in a mirror dimly, / then we shall see each other / face to face' ?

Love, Love, Love by The Mountain Goats (lyrics HERE)

The line about seeing 'in a mirror dimly' is borrowed from 1 Corinthians 13, slightly after the famous passage on love popular at marriages, which, if we read carefully, is less about romantic love and more about the kind of love which Jesus modeled in his relations with us: the love of enemy and outcast, neighbor and friend, sinner and saint alike.

If I speak in the tongues of humans or angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  

Love never ends.

                                        - 1 Corinthians 13: 1-8a

May we continue to hear God's 'Christmas' song of 'love, love, love' in ways that bring life and wholeness, but also remember God's pity and grace for where we have erred.

Tues Dec. 20 Tidings of Comfort and Joy (Pete Droge)

Hello Mr. Montgomery, good to see you out on the street.

Been so long since we touched the ground

of this restless little town.

Good people, gather round, on Christmas Day.

There must be smoke coming out of every chimney,

the kindest words rolling off of every tongue,

And of all the gifts that you could give me, your love is still the greatest one.

- Pete Droge, On Christmas Day

         The weather has been unseasonably warm in Southeast Michigan this month. The prediction is that it will not snow before the end of the week here, and while I am mourning my white Christmas a bit, I have appreciated the increased number of people who seem to be out and about enjoying this weather. There is something I just love about leaving my office and greeting the neighbors as they sit on their porch in the late afternoon, or going to a holiday street festival downtown and running into friends, or even being able to take a walk on a Saturday morning and stop to pet the Johnsons’ dog as I pass their house. This proximity and connection to others is usually more difficult in the cold weather months here and I am grateful for the reprieve, however long it lasts.

            These chance meetings and times of visiting, are what I pop into my head when I listen to today's song. Though the song embodies a kind of nostalgic, small town culture that isn't really part of my Christmas past, I do connect with the themes of gathering together, prioritizing relationships and recognizing the blessedness of knowing and being known to those around you. I hear Pete Drodge singing into his time and culture, the tidings of comfort and joy from our carols and hymns of old.

                                                   On Christmas Day

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            This past Sunday, my pastor preached about God’s love for people throughout time. He referenced the many stories of our ancestors in faith that tell of God being with the people: Abraham, Moses and the Israelites leaving Egypt, wandering in the desert, the judges, kings and prophets. For all time people of faith have believed that God is with us, but the Christmas story brings us a new idea about God. This time God isn’t just with the people, God becomes one of the people, inhabiting a body; the Eternal Creator wrapped up in flesh, in struggle, in joy, in the experience that is human life. There was a shift, pastor said, from God from being with us to God being within us.

            The last statment has occupied much of my own reflection these past days. I am compelled by this belief, the incarnation, not just God’s coming to earth as a baby human, but the added wonder that God is embodied in us, in our living and loving and connection to one another. This season offers a sacred call to us, to celebrate the coming of God to dwell with us, walking among us so many years ago; but it also calls us to celebrate a God that comes to dwell with in us each day. There is a way in which even our modern culture around Christmas keeps traces of this wisdom for us, as we sing good tidings, give charitably, send greeting cards and reconnect with family and friends.  But beyond that, a wonderful part of our Advent preparation is dwelling in our relationships and our connection to others; looking into the kind words, wishes for peace, and time spent together, and seeing the invitation, love and presence of our God Incarnate.

           

 Holy One,  dwell within us, as we dwell with each other, looking toward the celebration, peace and joy that you are bringing to the world.

-Lindsey